Mystery afoot in Silicon Valley: Colin Kroll, cofounder of the popular video-recording, posting, and sharing service Vine, has officially announced that he's stepping back from his role as the service's general manager.

While he didn't specify whether he'll be staying on board at Twitter, which purchased Vine for what was reported to be $30 million back in October of 2012, he did mention  in a Tweet  that he'll still be involved with Vine in some capacity.

"I'm so proud of Vine - the team + the product. I'll no longer be working there day-to-day as of today but will remain involved as an advisor," Kroll posted.

As for what Kroll might be up to in the meantime, he commented that he doesn't "have any further details to share at this moment," which either means "nothing at all" or "super-secret project I can't yet disclose." Given Silicon Valley, we're willing to wager that it's the latter.

Kroll's departure marks the second high-profile Vine employee to depart this year. Cofounder Dom Hofmann stepped down from his general manager position in early January, and sources suggested that he was in fact heading off to pursue a new startup whose details, and name, remain unknown at this point.

TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm speculated that the two departures are somewhat related, in the sense that the two cofounders might have "wrapped up a vesting period or contract mandating their staying at the social firm," he wrote.

Also, it appears that Vine isn't commenting about Kroll's departure, much as it had nothing to say when Hofmann stepped down from his post. Kroll's exit comes about a day or so after Vine unveiled a brand-new private messaging feature  likely unrelated, but an interesting chronological note nevertheless.

The new feature allows users to chat with one another via the app, and an individual Vine user can receive a message from anyone using Vine so long as said person has previously verified their phone number using the app. Messages from those who a Vine user doesn't actually follow get dumped into an "Other" inbox, which one is free to ignore (or remove the inbox entirely) as he or she sees fit.

Kroll teased out the new service in a video posted to Vine on Wednesday. We suppose that's better than posting a Vine of him, say, pushing all the stuff on his desk into a trash can, kicking his heels as he exits the building, or anything like that.

About the Author

David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he later rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors.
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